SEO for Christmas – Do It Now!

A couple of choice articles in the last day or so have got me thinking about Christmas already. At least from an Search Engine Optimisation point of view. First off I saw this article which was how Harrods has launched their Christmas range, only 138 days to go until Christmas Day!

And the other was this one which was highlighting the need for shopping and retail websites to make sure they are designed to attract the increasingly free spending group of so called ‘light shoppers’. These tend to be more affluant and older shoppers, and the expectation is that in the coming Christmas shopping window there expenditure will rise by 57% as opposed to the 28% increase from the regular ‘heavy’ shoppers, usually aged 18 to 50. (phew, I am just in that demographic!)

The report from Logan Tod highlight some key areas that sites should ensure are in tip top condition:

Clear, well written text and images

A good internal search function

Clear delivery details

We would also say in order to rank well for your Chrismas search terms you need to make sure site contains the relevant content, obvious of course but it may not do so at present (no pun intended).

Try to create groups of individual content, so ‘Childrens Christmas Presents’, ‘Teenager Christmas Presents’ or ‘Family Christmas Presents’. Or group by Price, by Style or by Brand. We would always encourage you to write your own, or get, user reviews, of each product. Go beyond the usual manufacturers descriptions.

Also, think about where you are getting links from and to. Really focus on getting the links in deep to product or category area. This may benfit your site more quickly than links just to the home page.

Above all, start doing this now. The shopping window may not yet be open, at least not with me, but as we all know, SEO takes time and you only have four months to go!

p.s. We know there is more we can add to this, and will, but I am off to a meeting and just wanted to get this down before I forgot about it, like I did yesterday!